Attendance — GRCHS

School attendance is compulsory by Michigan law. Grand Rapids Christian High School is responsible to keep complete attendance records. Regular school attendance is extremely important and essential for successful school progress. 

Our attendance policy encourages punctuality and regular attendance in all classes. Our school is set up to provide students with certain freedoms in their learning environment. However, habitual attendance infractions will result in loss of those school privileges. Attendance is very important for these reasons:

1. Excessive absence/tardiness is detrimental to the learning process and disruptive to the student’s education.
2. The classroom is a setting where spiritual, intellectual, and interpersonal exchanges take place, therefore, it is very important to be present for these learning experiences.
3. It is important to develop good work habits including punctuality and good attendance. These skills will prepare students for higher education and lifetime work. 
4. God calls us to use our time wisely and be respectful to our teachers and classmates.

Attendance Procedures for Parents and Students

1. Attendance is taken and recorded at the start of every period. 
2. Students who arrive at school after the bell rings must sign in at the office. 
3. If students need to leave for any reason, they must have parent communication with the attendance office and sign out in the main office. Students who do not have parental permission will be held at school until parents are contacted to give permission for leaving.
4. If a student leaves campus without signing out, it may result in school consequences including loss of school privileges, possible Lunch Reflection, and parent communication. See restricted campus policy. 
5. Attendance is the student’s responsibility. If a student needs to miss class for illness and/or appointments, the parent/guardian must contact the attendance office by phone or email before the start of the school day. Absences not excused within 24 hours may be treated as unexcused absences. 
6. The attendance line (616.574.5521) is available 24 hours a day. Parents can report absences via email to hsattendance@grcs.org, phone, or ParentVue. 
7. If a student has health care provider appointments during the day, scheduling those, whenever possible, during a student’s responsibility period, skills class, or during lunch break, will limit the academic impact of the absence.
8. Parents receive automated text notifications daily at 5:00 p.m. when their student has an unexcused absence. 
9. Parents are encouraged to check their student's attendance and academic records regularly through ParentVue.

Tardiness

Students are expected to arrive to class on time. Tardiness is categorized based on how late a student arrives:

• Tardy: Arriving up to 10 minutes late.
• Major Tardy: Arriving 10–20 minutes late (counts as two tardies).
• Unexcused Absence: More than 20 minutes late without a parent call or email.

Students arriving late to school must stop at the office for a pass. School-related tardies will be marked excused.

Consequences for Excessive Tardiness in One Class:

• 2nd Tardy: Warning email + online attendance survey

• 3rd–4th Tardy: Reflection goal sheet, daily phone check-in, parent communication

• 5th Tardy & Beyond: Focus Period reflection with assistant principal, five-day phone check-in, parent meeting, loss of responsibility period and/or parent excused hour

• Students with ongoing tardiness may be asked to pause leadership roles while they focus on attendance improvement. Reinstatement is possible upon progress.

*NOTE: One major tardy is equivalent to two tardies when factoring consequences.

Absences

Students are expected to present and prepared for all classes. Absences will be categorized in the following ways:

• Excused Absence: A parent/guardian contacts the attendance office to make them aware of an approved absence.
• School-related Excused Absence: A GRCHS staff member contacts the attendance office to make them aware of an approved school-related absence.
• Unexcused Absence: A student is more than 20 minutes late or missed a class without a parent/guardian call or email.
• Skip: A student leaves class without approval or misses class without an appropriate excuse.

Excused Absences

• Unplanned Excused Absences

  • Attendance is the student’s responsibility. If a student needs to miss class for illness and/or appointments, the parent/guardian must contact the attendance office by phone or email before the start of the school day. Absences not excused within 24 hours may be treated as unexcused absences. 
  • The attendance line (616.574.5521) is available 24 hours a day. Parents can report absences via email to hsattendance@grcs.org, phone, or ParentVue. 
  • If a student has health care provider appointments during the day, scheduling those, whenever possible, during a student’s responsibility period, skills class, or during lunch break, will limit the academic impact of the absence.

• Pre-Excused Absences: 

  • Pre-excused absences for non-academic reasons are strongly discouraged by the school. However, parents may request that the school approve a student’s absence provided the request is made at least three days prior to the date of the absence.
  • Students who will miss two or more consecutive school days should pick up a Pre-Excused Absence Form in the main office. Students must bring this form to all teachers to learn of expectations for missing work.
  • It should be noted that the responsibility for making up missed work is solely that of the student and the family. Teachers may require the student to complete assessments and assignments prior to the pre-approved absences. In cases where the work is to be completed when the student returns, the teacher will establish a time frame for completion of the work. 
  • Pre-excused absences should be limited to a maximum of five days per school year. Families requesting more than five days must receive administrative approval.  
  • Pre-excused absences are not permitted during exams and are strongly discouraged during the last three weeks of each semester.

NOTE: When a student missed four or more consecutive school days due to medical reasons, a doctor’s note must be provided for the attendance office. 

School-Related Absences

• Students must limit the number of school-related activities that will result in missed classes.
• Students have the option to decline participation in school-related activities that take them out of class(es) if they feel that missing the class(es) creates an undue academic hardship.
• Teachers and administrators may assist students in limiting those activities if they result in excessive absenteeism or become detrimental to academic or class participation. 
• Students are responsible for all work missed during a school-related absence. The work missed may be due on the day of return.

Unexcused Absences

A student is marked unexcused when arriving more than 20 minutes late without a parent call or email. Unexcused absences will result in the following consequences:

• 1st Unexcused Absence: Warning email + online attendance survey
• 2nd Unexcused Absence: Reflection goal sheet, daily phone check-in, parent communication
• 3rd Unexcused Absence & Beyond: Focus Period reflection with assistant principal, five-day phone check-in, parent meeting, attendance contract, loss of responsibility period and/or parent excused hour
• Students with ongoing tardiness may be asked to pause leadership roles while they focus on attendance improvement. Reinstatement is possible upon progress.
• If improvements are not noted, a referral for Truancy Action will be made to the Kent County Attendance Officer. 
• Students that exceed 8 total absences (unexcused and/or excused) in a class may be removed from the course, and they may not receive credit. 

Skip

A student will be marked as “skipping” for the following reasons:

• Student leaves or misses class or any required school activity without permission and does not sign out.

• Student does not return to class in an appropriate and timely manner.

• Student leaves school without signing out or without administrative approval.

Skips will be treated as unexcused absences when assigning consequences. If a student leaves campus or disrupts the school environment, other consequences may be assigned.

NOTE: There are no school-authorized skip days for any student including seniors. Students who choose to declare such a day and not show up for classes are considered unexcused. The consequences of unexcused absences will be imposed. 

Excessive Absences

• Excessive absence is an academic detriment. Therefore, students that exceed eight absences of any kind in a class may be removed from the course, and may not receive credit. 
• If absences are school related or beyond the student's control, such as extended or chronic illness, or family emergency, the student may remain in the class with a doctor's note or other appropriate documentation and administrative approval.
•  If excessive absences result in a lack of evidence of proficiency on course learning targets, credit may be assigned instead of a letter grade.

Chapel, Community Time, Responsibility Period, and Focus Period 

Attendance is mandatory in chapel, community time, responsibility period, and focus period. Students are expected to sit with their small group leaders in their assigned seats in chapel and community time.

Students who choose to skip chapel, community time, responsibility period, or focus period may expect the same consequences as skipping a class. Having a responsibility period or parent-excused hour is a privilege that will be removed if there are habitual attendance concerns.

Extra-Curricular Events

In order to participate in any extracurricular practice or event, students must be in attendance by 10:00 a.m. and finish the day at school. Exceptions include a doctor’s appointment with a doctor’s note, college visit, or funeral. Students should clear those absences with the attendance supervisor prior to missing school.